Embedded devices such as is found in automobiles, medical devices, and cellular phones have limited resources compared to standard “desktop” PC-type computing environments (for example, less memory may be used and a limited set of I/O devices may be supported). Because an embedded device has limited resources, it is easier to perform software development on a cross-development host prior to implementation in the embedded device. Such development is facilitated by an integrated development environment (“IDE”).
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram illustrating a typical IDE 1, such as the Tornado™ development environment from Wind River Systems, Inc., used to develop and debug software applications. The hardware used to implement the IDE 1 includes one or more hosts 10 and one or more targets 20 (e.g., embedded devices). The IDE 1 allows developers to organize, write, and compile applications on the host 10, and then download, run, and debug them on the target 20. The host 10 is typically equipped with large amounts of RAM and disk space, backup media, printers, and other peripherals. In contrast, the target 20 typically has limited resources (small amounts of RAM, no disk, no display, etc.), and perhaps some small amount of additional resources for testing and debugging. A number of alternatives exist for connecting the target 20 to the host 10, but usually the connection is either an Ethernet or serial link.
Referring to FIG. 1, the target 20 may include an application 137 which is software that performs a particular function (for example, providing the functionality required for a hand held computing device). The target 20 may also include an operating system 140 which may be used to control the allocation and usage of the target's resources. The operating system 140, such as VxWorks® from Wind River Systems, Inc., is typically “scalable”, i.e., components of the operating system may be included or excluded depending on the requirements of the application 137. A component is an operating system facility that can be built into, or excluded from, a custom version of the operating system 140. For example, a network TCP/IP stack component can be used to connect to a network, but this component can be safely omitted from the operating system 140 if the application does not require network functionality. The scalable feature of the operating system is especially beneficial in embedded devices because these devices tend to vary widely, using different processors and other hardware. The operating system 140 can be tailored to satisfy the requirements of the particular hardware and functionality of the embedded device while consuming minimal system resources.
The target 20 may also include a target agent 143 which allows the target 20 to communicate with the host 10. The target agent 143 responds to requests transmitted by the host 10, for example, by returning results from such requests. These requests may include memory transactions, notification services for breakpoints and other target events, and other useful communication and debugging activities.
The host 10 includes a target server 128 used for communicating with the target 20. The target server 128 satisfies target requests by breaking each request into the necessary transactions with the target agent 143. The host 10 also includes tools 150 for, among other things, creating and debugging the application 137 that is downloaded to the target 20 and for configuring the operating system 140 with particular components. The tools 150 use the target server 128 to communicate with the target 20.
As stated earlier, the operating system 140 has numerous components that can be tuned, and included or excluded, depending on the requirements of the application 137. For example, various networking and file system components may be required for one application and not another, and the tools 150 provide a means for either including them in, or excluding them from the operating system 140. However, the tools 150 may be cumbersome in that the application has to be examined by a user of the IDE 1 in order to determine the components that the application needs, or does not need; and thereafter, those needed components have to be manually added and the unneeded components have to be manually removed from the operating system 140.
The operating system 140 may implement objects that prevent interference by malfunctioning and/or malicious tasks (an object that performs an action) while maintaining high execution speeds and scalability. An example of such an object is a protection domain which is described in greater detail below. The tools 150 of the IDE 1 should support these objects.
The tools 150 on the host 10 have the following inadequacies:    (1) the tools 150 require manually finding the components which the application 137 needs and then manually adding those components to the operating system 140;    (2) the tools 150 do not provide information about components that are not required and thus can be safely removed from the operating system 140; and    (3) the tools 150 should support new operating system objects.